Title: Five in Berkeley, CA – update dinner
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

NOTE: This is the full set of reviews. Abbreviated 9-pg version is on Exegesis.

Five @Hotel Shattuck, Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
Menus on website are samples only: http://five.eattap.com/files/2013/10/Dinner-Menu-11.20.13.pdf 
Review date: May 2014
(previous reviews appended below)

For several years, Five was one of our favorite restaurants. Under classically trained chef Banks White, its food was sophisticated and creative, as good as anything we could find in SF. 

Sadly, Berkeleyites never did seem to appreciate Five's stylishness. Unfortunately its focus on quality over quantity under Chef Banks White didn't please bargain-hunting Yelpers, and the Chowhounders were too busy chasing after the latest hot restaurant to even notice Five existed. Compared to Gather's organic/flexitarian political correctness or Comal's Cal-Mex bonhomie, Five's upscale American food was continually ignored in favor of its handsome bar. Despite Chef White's undeniable talent – we considered him the best chef in Alameda County, easily equal to Chris Jones/Brix and David Bazirgan/Fifth Floor – Five seemed to be forever destined as an afterthought on the East Bay dining scene.

Chef White finally left Five for a similar position at Minton's Jazz Club in NYC. We ate at Five just before he left in May 2013 and were wowed by the Southern-inspired dishes he was trying out for possible inclusion at Minton's. We were able to thank him for the many excellent meals we'd had at Five and wish him well in his new job.

Five was a restaurant where multiple courses were assumed. They were never large portions, although we ate at the much-hyped Homestead/Oakland just a couple of days before our October 2013 dinner at Five, and confirmed that Five's portions were not only larger than Homestead's but the cooking under the new chef Stephane Tonnelier, although not perfect, was more interesting than Homestead. We found Homestead more like a cheaper and less-interesting Camino/Oakland. 

Despite a similar resume to chef White, we thought chef Tonnelier's cooking good but lacking the discipline and focus we prefer. The dishes had too much "throw in the kitchen sink" syndrome common to young chefs, and the balance wasn't as pleasing overall, although the flavors were good.

It's now been eight months since Tonnelier came on board at Five. On a Tuesday evening designated as a "Dine Out For Charity" event, I thought it might be interesting to return to Five and see how things had changed. We arrived to find that still, Five remains dismally empty in the evenings, with easily twice the number of people drinking at the bar as dining in the restaurant.

Five doesn't post its menu to the website, so we saw a combination of a few old and mostly new, dishes available. We decided on the following:

Biscuits with honey butter and pimento cheese. Banks White taught Five to make these biscuits, which we consider the best around. They've maybe dropped a little in execution, but they're still excellent. The error on the biscuits was minor. Whoever is making the biscuits now doesn't quite have the ratios down; the dough was just a touch too wet before baking. We had to wait 10 minutes before a new batch came out of the oven, four to a basket. Carlos loves the honey butter, and I prefer the pimento cheese. We brought two of them home as leftovers. These are drop biscuits, which I prefer to cut biscuits.

Sweetbread Sliders: pan-fried sweetbreads, sautéed mushrooms, frisée salad on brioche bun. Two to an order; we each had one. We love sweetbreads, but aren't in love with the idea of smothering them with bread, even if it was brioche. It was good, but there's much better ways to present sweetbreads. The sweetbreads were nicely pan-fried, however, not overcooked.

Mushroom bisque garnished with deep-fried wild mushrooms. Carlos liked this, saying it was tasty. But he didn't think it was anything remarkable, not truly any different than anybody else's cream of mushroom soup.

Endive salad: endive, poached egg 63.3 degrees, tart green apple, toasted walnuts, Pt. Reyes blue cheese. This sounded interesting, but was a disappointment. I like all these separate ingredients, but the sum of the total was less than expected. The apples were in peeled thin batons, and also in small thin wedges. The wedges were really sour, as if soaked in apple cider vinegar, while the baton shreds were just good tart crisp apple. The endive was finely shredded and there didn't seem very much in the heaped bowlful; it tasted entirely of apples despite the occasional green leafy shred. 

The walnuts were plain toasted halves, instead of being chopped into smaller pieces to better match the fine shreds of apple and endive. I'm not fond of Pt. Reyes blue, and here it was left in large crumbles that were more overpowering than needed. Gorgonzola might have been a better choice or just fewer, smaller crumbles of blue. 

The egg was poached harder than I prefer, so the yolk was barely runny, with no dressing created to smooth all the flavors together. I like it at 62 degrees; with this salad the hyped 63.3 wasn't much different than a soft-boiled 65 degrees.

This salad lacked the right proportion of ingredients and thus that critical balance, with the execution feeling a little sloppy. It was the worst kind of addition: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = ….well, nothing added up to anything interesting. Everything remained separate flavors, no matter what I put together on my fork.

NY Steak with ham croquette, green beans, piquillo peppers, marcona almonds, au jus. Neither Carlos nor I could figure out why you'd need a big salty ham croquette to accompany a big salted steak. A rice croquette or potato-kale croquette maybe, but why ham? I reminded Carlos to ask for the green beans to be cooked longer; Five has been seriously undercooking vegetables lately. We faulted chef Tonnelier on our Oct 2013 dinner for a 'kitchen sink' mentality: good flavors, but too many disparate ingredients. This plate, like my endive salad, showed the same weakness still exists. The few shreds of piquillo peppers with sliced marcona almonds set atop a few curly leaves of frisée were pretty, but had little impact and with the plentiful green beans, big steak and massive salty croquette, there was little need for them. What bothered us most was the saltiness on this plate. In Oct 2013 we came for both dinner and a Sunday brunch, and nothing was oversalted, including the steak. This time with that croquette and steak, it was a sodium overload. Although Carlos ate his green beans and was willing to bring the steak home, he declined to eat more than a single bite of the ham croquette, even though he loves ham and is much more tolerant of salt than I am.

Braised pork cheeks in red wine sauce with crispy polenta, asparagus, frisée, turnips, pea puree. Five seems to have taken the criticism of their portion sizes to heart. Unfortunately, as with many places, as the quantity goes up the quality of the execution seems to falter. The little polenta squares were cheesy and good on first bite, but a little over the top rich as I continued to eat. The pork cheeks had a couple of strikes against them: one was an odd winy sweetness, and the second was they came barely lukewarm. The polenta squares were hot, but the pork was clearly sitting on the plate for way too long. I disliked the overheated plates coming out of the kitchen on our Oct 2013 visits, but this went too far the other way. 

Underneath everything, the pea purée was ying-yanged on the plate with the red wine sauce, but too much was used. I never got a clear taste of the sauce because the thick-textured purée was mixed in with it. I like peas, but this just muddled all the flavors. The cheeks were meaty but dry. Although tender they weren't very tasty, with little pork flavor.

Carlos put aside most of his steak to bring home, and helped me eat the pork cheeks. We agreed that neither entrée seemed well thought-out or especially distinctive. Like the endive salad, they were all separate flavors with no unifying element. Presentation was attractive but not remarkable; everything looked similar to the food coming out every night from tens of thousands of mid-priced bistros across America.

I had an iced tea with dinner; it was adequate. Carlos had a cappuccino to finish and it was quite good. Service was attentive but with only four tables occupied, no one was being kept busy.

We're really disappointed with the new chef at Five. The flavors were muddy and uncoordinated, and we couldn't figure out what the focus was, to make Five stand out from its competition. "American comfort food" is the most generic of terms – you might as well use it to describe IHOP or McDonald's. 

Yes, the serving sizes are more generous. But the food wasn't satisfying. The dishes that were new, such as the sweetbreads, endive, or pork cheeks, weren't very good. The menu descriptions sound enticing, but the kitchen's execution shows up the concept's weakness in each dish. It feels as if the chef is doing the Food Network rote of "one from Column A, one from Column B, two from Column C...." 

It's a world away from the passion and focused simplicity of Trabocco's/Alameda roasted baccala with polenta and peppers, or that delicate, carefully judged fillip of hazelnut cream in Walter Hansel's/Santa Rosa leek-potato soup. If one is going after separated flavors, then Russell Moore's cooking at Camino is a deliberately streamlined example that makes a mockery of Tonnelier's ham-handed heaviness (pun unintended). For all the touting of Tonnelier's French cooking background, the sauces and seasoning are neither distinctive nor noteworthy. It's a mismatch between his very impressive resume (http://www.five-berkeley.com/five_stephane_tonnelier.html) and the messy, ill-conceived plates we were faced with.

Is chef Tonnelier trying to be different for difference's sake? We simply can't tell. The two best things about this dinner, we agreed, were the biscuits (from Banks White's repertoire, not Tonnelier's) and the espresso. Neither Carlos nor I would reorder any of the starters or entrées we tried. The promise we glimpsed back in October wasn't realized in this May dinner. 

Not exactly the ringing endorsement a chef or restaurateur wants. 

If you're looking for creative, delicious, French-inspired food, Montrio/Monterey is flying miles above where Five is now heavily trudging along. Five falls off our "A" list. Except for brunch – which was good in October, and we're willing to give it a return try, since there's so few brunch places in the EBay. But we have no interest in having dinner here again.

We're sad about that, but two misses out of three is too many at this level. We would rather go back to Pican, Desco, or Trabocco, than return to Five.

Two people, dinner: One side, three starters, two entrées, two beverages, with tip was $132.

Five @Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley, CA – update, brunch
Sample brunch menu: http://five.eattap.com/files/2013/10/Brunch-11.02.13.pdf
Review date: October 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

Inez has returned from a visit with her goddaughter, so we thought we would go out for Sunday brunch, something we seldom do. This decision was complicated because of several factors: it was spur of the moment; it needed to be within an easy distance as I didn't want to drive too far; and we all hate both crowds and noise. 

Although we'd eaten dinner at Five not that long ago, when I checked OpenTable it turned out they had an expanded menu at brunch that sounded interesting. With the Post Office, City Hall, and Berkeley High School all closed on a Sunday, I was hopeful the street parking wouldn't be too bad.

I still had to park two short blocks away, but it was nice to see a decent crowd at Five for brunch. Mind you, we're not talking more than ten tables, but there are times we've walked into Five and shared the large dining room with only one or two occupied tables, all evening long.

The daily soup sounded good so I ordered a cup. It was cream of vegetable, but the waiter warned me it was "a little spicy" from some chipotle chile. The cup size is fairly generous; at some restaurants this would be a full bowl size. It was mostly puréed carrots, with very little cream but a whole lot of chile! I loved it, but after Carlos tried some, he agreed that most people wouldn't be able to eat this. This was a pretty serious level of heat, at least a 6.5 on a scale of 10. You don't often encounter this at a bistro-style restaurant.

Inez wanted the pancakes. She asked for the double option of both bananas and berries (they're offered separately). Although the menu claims the fruit is served with whipped cream, there was hardly any on the pancakes. If the whipped cream totaled more than a single spoonful, we'd be surprised.

Fortunately the kitchen does bring both butter and a small pitcher of (real) maple syrup. Unlike most restaurants, asking for more syrup is free. Carlos insisted she also order a side of ham, which is good American ham, thinly sliced and pan-fried. The pancakes come two to a plate, and they are generously sized.

Carlos chose the steak and eggs, which were nicely handled. The over easy eggs were perfectly done, the steak was the hanger cut with a great crust and rare interior, and the addition of a mushroom jus was a lovely touch. The steak had great flavor, and Carlos loved everything.

I ordered the duck confit hash and eggs. One change since Stephane Tonnelier has taken over the kitchen from the former ExecChef Banks White, is that many of the plates are coming out blazingly hot. I have never approved of this practice, for the simple reason that the food inevitably keeps on cooking, often to the detriment of the dish.

The hash escaped this sad fate, but just barely. Fortunately the duck confit was very flavorful and properly washed; it was a touch dry but more than acceptable with the delightfully runny yolk of the poached eggs on top (which kept them from the bowl heat). The fingerling potatoes were halved, and quite tasty. It wasn't a large dish, but the flavors were excellent. I've had a couple of duck hashes that were better (Canele in Southern CA is our "gold standard"), but I've had many more that were far worse than what Five gave me. 

Inez couldn't finish her pancakes, so we had her eat the fruit and ham, and Carlos and I finished half the pancakes off. We don't often eat pancakes, but on occasion we like to share a 'short stack'.

Previously, we have held the best pancakes we've eaten were at Mel's Diner in San Francisco (not related to the inferior Mel's restaurants in the East Bay). But Five's pancakes blew Mel's away. Like the biscuits that we love at dinnertime, former chef Banks White was correct in insisting that Five use only the best soft pastry flour. The taste and tenderness of both here are outstanding. We sincerely hope that Chef Tonnelier doesn't feel compelled to mess with success in this part of the menu! 

Just as using quality hard-wheat flour makes a difference in a pizza crust, so does using the best soft-wheat flour improve baking and non-yeasted doughs. You can see the comparison (great photos!) at Kathy Strahs' blog Cooking On The Side, where she makes the same cut biscuit recipe three times, with three different flours: http://cookingontheside.com/the-results-are-in-which-flour-made-the-best-biscuits/. (Note, however, Five makes drop biscuits, not cut.)

Carlos and Inez had orange juice to start. The coffee remains strong but not top quality, one of the few bones we have to pick here. The service of the new waitstaff wasn't as well coordinated as we like to see, but it was good enough to satisfy, so we had no complaints.

We're fond of brunch, a civilized meal at a civilized time of day. It's great to have the option of two excellent brunch places in Alameda County – Pican/Oakland (reviewed August 2013) and now Five. 

Three people, brunch: one starter, three mains, one side, five beverages, with tip was $101.

FIVE @Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
Sample dinner menu: http://five.eattap.com/files/2013/09/Dinner-Menu-9.30.13.pdf
Review date: October 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

Our last visit at Five was in May 2013, shortly before ExecChef Banks White was due to exit for Minton's in NYC. We enjoyed the best meal we'd had at Five so far (this was our eighth meal since Oct 2009), and were able to personally wish Mr. White good luck. As we considered him one of the finest chefs in the East Bay, to us his departure was a tremendous loss. 

Sadly, Five has never really caught on with Berkeley diners, although the bar is a popular place. Its style is more like a San Francisco restaurant than a Berkeley restaurant. Under Chef White's deft, French-inspired hand, Five had more in common with the City's Fifth Floor or Bluestem Brasserie than Berkeley's Gather or Lalime.

A new chef, Stephane Tonnelier was named in August 2013. He was formerly the sous chef at Boulevard/SF. Five has seen almost complete turnover in their waitstaff, to its detriment. It's acquired some scathing reviews on Yelp on the quality of its recent service; reviews lauding both food and service are being offset by equally emphatic reviews about being ignored for too long periods of time. 

We came on a Thursday evening and were surprised to find a reasonably good crowd in the dining room. When I commented on this to the manager, he said they have been experiencing more diners on Thursday evenings in the last couple of months, but no one knows why. Yet another reason why restaurateurs get early and plentiful gray hairs, no doubt!

Carlos opted for a cup of soup, which was a halibut bisque with croutons. He said it wasn't the best he'd ever had, but definitely a cut above most places. Five doesn't sell a lot of fish, which makes it hard for them to produce a good fish stock. He said there was a bit too much (canned) base in it, although probably most people wouldn't be able to tell. I took a spoonful and thought it was pretty good.

Five has always been a restaurant where you can easily order three or even four courses. We are fine with this style – in fact, we prefer it. Coming here on the heels of eating at Homestead/Oakland, however, it was noticeable that although there are Yelpers who think Five gives portions that are too small, all of Five's dishes were in fact larger than anything we saw the previous night at Homestead. 

I ordered the heirloom tomato salad, which was interesting but not exceptional. The tomatoes were reasonably good, and the basil oil vinaigrette was exceptional. But the mizuna was old and past its prime, a shame because this is one of my favorite greens. I also wasn't in love with the two small shavings of Drunken Goat hard cheese; it seemed rather miserly against the generous amount of greens and tomatoes. 

Carlos picked the burrata starter. This was described as "paprika-fried burrata, basil pesto, eggplant & zucchini & tomato terrine". To our surprise, when we cut into the balls of fried cheese, they were a lovely green-flecked color and tasted of basil. I asked the manager whether they produced this themselves, and he said they mix the burrata with their own pesto. The frying is on-point, with a fine breadcrumb crust. I fell in love with the terrine; Carlos was okay with it but I thought it was exquisite. It was a simple creation of grilled thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini and tomato, layered and pressed together. Overall, a wonderful early fall dish which we enjoyed, taking advantage of these last few weeks of seasonal variants on caprese and ratatouille.

There are still a few of Chef Banks White's dishes on the menu. The orzo mac'n'cheese remains, as do the biscuits with their pimento-white Cheddar spread. I was very tempted by both – we've had them several times and they're consistently marvelous. But I restrained myself and didn't order any.

To our surprise, however, once the appetizer plates were cleared away, the manager came over and put down a free basket of the buttermilk chive biscuits (always served warm)! People who laud Brown Sugar Kitchen's biscuit should come to Five: these are the way Southern biscuits SHOULD be. They are tender in texture, crumbly (but not overly so), and served hot. Butter is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't belong in making Southern biscuits. Slathered over them, yes; but not in the recipe itself. 

Five also gives two ramekins: one of butter with honey poured over it, and one of the pimento-Cheddar spread. This was perfect, as Carlos prefers the butter and honey, and I prefer the Cheddar. It's a shame my mother never got to try Five's biscuits; she loved them as her favorite Southern food, and she would have appreciated Five's biscuits which I consider far and away the best in town. 

I ordered the duck breast, which came with crispy potato puffs, onion purée, turned vegetables, in a citrus pomegranate sauce. The potato puffs were made from creamy mashed potatoes. The vegetables were spare—a couple of young haricot verts and thin lengthwise slices of young zucchini. If there was an onion purée somewhere, I missed it in the onslaught of ingredients. 

There was a delicious dark brown au jus which tasted of citrus and duck juices enriched with butter. In it were fresh orange segments, sliced grapes, and pomegranate seeds. This was an updating of the classic Duck a l'Orange, but although tasty it didn't quite come off. The duck breast, in three good-sized pieces with a nice pan-crisped skin, came on a plate so overheated it cooked the meat to medium before it was set down in front of me. The grapes were superfluous and one-note sweet; with the oranges and pomegranate seeds there was no need for them. 

All the ingredients were excellent quality and tasty, however. I enjoyed this dish a great deal more than Homestead's overcooked and too-spare duck confit dish. Carlos liked the taste I gave him, but agreed with me that the balance was just a little off with too many ingredients.

Carlos ordered the gnocchi, which came with a wild boar ragú, mushrooms, fried sage, pickled red onions, seasonal vegetables, and glazed walnuts. Again, one or two too many ingredients, but the flavor of the ragú was very good and the gnocchi, although oddly triangular in shape, were excellent if not the lightest we've ever had. 

We wanted to share dessert, but had to ask the waiter if the raspberry chocolate cake dessert could be made without crème fraiche, which Carlos seldom likes. He checked with the kitchen, and came back to say that they could do it with whipped cream instead, as each cake is put together individually as ordered. 

We were surprised to hear this, but understood when we received the plate. The cake is three small rounds of a thin, sweet dark chocolate layer cake (think mini-muffin circumference). They are stacked with two layers of cream – whipped by our request; fraiche otherwise – and fresh raspberries. A long thin curled pistachio tuile cookie, almost see-through in its delicacy, curled over a generous spoonful of mascarpone gelato. Two strawberries dipped in dark sweet chocolate completed the plate. 

Carlos is not a gelato fan, and although he enjoys mascarpone in desserts he doesn't care for it by itself. I was fine with it and the cheesecake-like flavor was excellent with the cake and its berry-cream filling, giving it the needed depth. The strawberries weren't very sweet, providing more of an acid note than the super-sweet mild raspberries in the filling did. The tuile was as light as air and as tasty as it was stunning.

Carlos got regular coffee, I got decaf. Five has upgraded its coffee and it's now strong the way we like it, although still not the best around.

Overall, we still miss Banks White. White had a defter hand with sauces than the current kitchen, and hewed more towards classic French simplicity and carefully planned balance than we received tonight. We did appreciate that nothing we got was oversalted (yeay!!) and the excesses were mild, not gratuitously over-the-top as places like Redd and Oenotri (both in Napa) inflicted upon us.

Carlos and I agreed that although Five has slipped a bit, it remains a cut above the rest of Berkeley's restaurants. The dining room struck me this time as becoming just a trifle dated, but it's still a handsome setting. We had no service issues although the timing did seem a bit on the slow side from the kitchen end – which is probably why we ended up with those free biscuits. 

Even if we had been charged for them, it still would be worth the few extra dollars to come here instead of any number of their competitors. It's like going to San Francisco for dinner without having to cross the Bridge or get on BART. Parking is difficult, admittedly; but if you don't mind a short three- or four-block walk at most, it's relatively safe and hassle-free for pedestrians. 

Five stays on our "A" list...okay, maybe it's an A- now. It should be noted they seem to have dropped their prix-fixe menus, which is a shame as they were a very good value.

Two people, dinner: three starters, one freebie side, two entrées, one dessert, two beverages, with tip was $129 (it would have been $136 if we'd paid for the biscuits, which are well worth it).
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Sept 2013: Chef change - Stephane Tonnelier replaces Banks White:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/08/26/chef-stephane-tonnelier-takes-the-helm-at-five/

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FIVE @Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
http://five.eattap.com/files/2013/04/5.1.13-Dinner.pdf
Review date: May 2013

Barely two weeks ago, we learned from the SF Chronicle's Inside Scoop column that Chef Banks White was going to leave Five at the end of May 2013. He has been one of our favorite chefs since we discovered Five back in October 2009 – tonight was our eighth visit. Having trained at some of our favorites Cal-French places, Auberge du Soleil and Etoile, he offered interesting combinations based on classic French techniques, with wonderful sauces that never overwhelm the food they accompany.

We've always felt that Chef White is grossly under-appreciated in this town. This is a shame because one would think that an upscale bistro with food this good, but with prices competitive with Lalime, would be able to find a following. Yet the vast majority of Yelp reviewers (Berkeley is not really an OpenTable town) come here only for drinks.

This is stylish, well-balanced, sophisticated food, more San Francisco than Bezerkley (as we often like to call our northside rival). Although not every dish we've tried at Five has been a success, overall we've gotten a higher proportion of very good to excellent dishes, than anywhere else in Berkeley. And when it hits the mark, as White very often does, it's food that's equal to Fifth Floor/SF or Solbar/Calistoga.

Carlos suggested we come back one last time before Chef White leaves, so we came for one of our weekly dinners with my MIL Inez. We started by sharing the fritto misto, which was different than the fried shrimp we tried here December 2011. That previous batter was so light and fragile, it cracked off as soon as you stuck a fork in it. This batter was a bit thicker and not as shatteringly crisp; less delicate but still light. The one flaw was that it could have been deep-fried another 20 seconds for a little more browning.

The ingredients in the fritto misto were shrimp, green beans, artichoke hearts, shishito peppers, and fennel. All of them were quite good, although Carlos gave me both artichoke hearts as he doesn't care for artichokes any longer. The dip was outstanding – an "onion ash mayo". We haven't encountered this before, and it was a remarkable creation. It had great depth of flavor without any 'ashy' taste, nor did it have a strong onion taste. It was just simply…yummy. All three of us wiped the dip ramekin clean!

The soup of the day was a white bean soup with tasso ham. Carlos was surprised that this was a tomato-based soup, full of diced vegetables, sliced shiitake mushrooms and whole small white beans. The tasso ham was generously diced and gave the soup a gently spicy edge. 

Five doesn't offer a cup size; this is a full bowl. He ate about three-quarters of it and I finished off the rest. This was a lovely soup, a Southern version of the Italian minestrone.

Inez had the orzo mac'n'cheese, one of Five's signature dishes – it's available both as a starter and as a side. Five periodically changes the cheeses used; this time it was a smoked Gouda again, topped with toasted bread crumbs and sautéed oyster mushrooms. She enjoyed this, but it's rich so she only ate half and we brought the rest home for her lunch tomorrow. We also ordered a side of grilled asparagus. Unfortunately they were char-broiled a little too long; coming out soft enough for Inez to eat but tasting too burnt.

I ordered the fried chicken, which had some interesting-sounding accompaniments. They were described as coconut collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried plaintain, and spicy Ghanian peanut sauce. Carlos loves fried chicken but since he isn't fond of peanut sauce he didn't want to order this dish. The peanut sauce was spooned around the edge of the plate, so I was able to give him a bite of just the chicken. 

He agreed that this was one of the best-tasting chickens we've ever had. It was two pieces of boned-out thighs, lightly battered. They were not only juicy, but amazingly flavorful. 

On top of the chicken was a small heap of pickled raw cabbage shreds. Pickled sweet green pepper slices and raw carrot slices garnished the dish. The chicken sat atop the collard greens, in wide shreds mixed with just enough coconut cream to provide a little sauce on them. 

Underneath that were some wonderful black-eye peas. These have never been my favorite beans, but over the last year we've gotten some excellent versions. Although they're still not my favorites, I'm no longer as adverse to them as before! The aforementioned peanut sauce was lightly spiced but not chile-hot, and when the coconut cream from the collard greens was mixed into it, this was a great combination. Many times peanut sauces are cloying in texture and taste; this was not. The dish had a fine balance of being satisfying and hearty, yet not heavy or greasy.

Carlos ordered the double-cut pork chop, which was described as "lime, cilantro, frisée, apricot-ginger compote, smoked honey glaze." What a mouthful, LOL. But despite the involved description, it sparked Carlos' interest. When he received the plate, there was a tasty wilted salad on the side of frisée and halved cherry tomatoes. The lime, cilantro and compote were used as the warm salad dressing, giving it a tart, spicy fruitiness that offset the usual bitterness of the frisée.

The glory of this plate was centered rightly on the pork chop. It was a hefty three inches thick, brined and then grilled to perfection. We have lauded similar chops at Wente Winery restaurant on May 2010 and (multiple times) at Speisekammer/Alameda. 

But Chef White's version beats them both, in our opinion. It was everything a meat-lover wants from a pork chop: just the right amount of salt and sweet, the brine enhancing the natural pork flavor without overwhelming it; tender and extremely juicy. We asked for it medium-rare; with pork of this high quality, you never want to overcook it. 

It should be noted that Wente's chop is a bit larger, although Five's chop is very generously sized. Although the menu didn't indicate whether this was an heirloom/heritage breed, the taste was so exceptional that like the chicken, we're sure that these great quality meats would be delicious no matter what kind of preparation the kitchen used. 

We weren't going to miss dessert, which has always been interesting, and occasionally exceptional, at Five. We ordered a scoop of pineapple sorbet for Inez, which was rather icy but full of fresh pineapple flavor, so she enjoyed it.

Carlos and I shared the blackberry-rhubarb cobbler for two, which comes with mascarpone gelato and a cornmeal crust. The berry-rhubarb combination was excellent, but although the cornmeal crust was tender, it made the cobbler a little dry by absorbing  most of those good berry juices. The gelato helped, but a generous dollop of a mascarpone-whipped cream mixture would have gone better with what ended up as more of a fresh fruit shortcake.

Five's decaf has always been better than its regular, but it seems that they have changed coffee vendors. It's always been strong and fresh, but this time the regular was finally as good (but a different blend) than the decaf. I didn't check for the vendor, but it was similar in style to Philz or Stumptown.

When the waitress came over to ask how we liked our meal, we asked her to give our compliments to Chef Banks White on tonight's dinner, as well as congratulating on his new venture in NYC. She was surprised we knew he was leaving, and promised to pass on our message.

A little later, the manager brought over Chef White, so we were able to personally say how sorry we were to lose him to the East Coast. He says the new venture will be sited in a historic 1930's jazz club in Harlem, with the name remaining as Minton's (NY Times article on the club and its planned remodeling: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/nyregion/reviving-mintons-playhouse). 

I asked what his new menu might look like, and he said it will be similar to Five's, but a little more Southern-oriented. In light of the fabulous BBQ plate one of our friends had here with us in July 2011, and tonight's Southern-influenced dishes, we wouldn't be surprised if Chef White is experimenting with some preliminary recipes for his new venture.

We stopped to talk to the restaurant manager before we left, thanking him for bringing the chef over so we could give him our regards. He said that all the sous-chefs are remaining with Five, and they don't intend to change the style of the restaurant. 

They haven't yet decided on an executive chef replacement. Five will inevitably change over time. We hope that the new chef will have that same unerring sense for well-balanced combinations and perfect, subtle sauces, even though our experience has been that very few chefs pull this off well, even in our restaurant-heavy Bay Area.

It's been a great run for Five ever since it opened. Having recently lost the fine chefs who ran the kitchens at Meritage/Berkeley, Sea Salt/Berkeley, SR24/Oakland, and Duck Club/Lafayette, we'll keep our fingers crossed that Carlos and I don't lose another of our favorite restaurants.

Three people, dinner: Four starters, two entrees, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $148.

Five @Hotel Shattuck, Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
Review date: January 2013
(previous reviews appended below)

Ah, the joy of urban living! The two weeks after Christmas is the annual convergence when holidays and Mother Nature combine to remove at least 6,000 University of California Berkeley and Berkeley High School students from the area surrounding Shattuck and University Avenues. 

Since this eight-block area holds innumerable restaurants, storefronts, and offices, but also the main Berkeley Post Office, the Berkeley City Hall, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and two multi-cineplexes, you can understand that grabbing a nearby street parking is a prize second only to finding the same in San Francisco's Telegraph Hill or Marina districts on a weekend evening.

We took the opportunity of winter break and a good ski season to drive into downtown Berkeley, where we were happy to find numerous parking spaces available less than two blocks from the restaurant.

A handful of these downtown restaurants are the upscale Five's competition: Comal (Mexican), Downtown (CA bistro), Belli Osteria (pasta), and Gather (flexitarian). Chef Banks White has struggled to pull in the cost-conscious Berkeleyites, overshadowed by the buzz on Gather and Comal. The stylish bar area is reasonably popular with the after-work crowd, but in the last couple of years we have yet to see the dining room more than one-quarter full. They have even removed the second smaller private dining room that was off to the side. 

Five has gotten some criticism for small portions, and during this meal we did encounter some rather odd portion sizing, outlined below. We have always liked the portions here, which are modest but satisfying.

Carlos started with the beet salad, which had very few greens, just the way he likes it. This had a rather long list of ingredients: baby beets, satsuma (fresh tangerines, diced), chicory, avocado (diced), fennel (sliced), goat cheese, cashews (whole, toasted), and a citrus vinaigrette. Everything was on one plate, but that was as far as the mixing went. It was very much a dish where everything was separate and all the flavors were combined in your mouth as you chewed. Carlos was fine with this; I thought it an "empty out the pantry" combination of oddly assorted ingredients.

I ordered a side of cornbread for Inez, which comes with honey butter. The latter was honey and butter, unmixed – another odd touch. The cornbread was two small, rather flat mini-loaves, and both Carlos and Inez pronounced it very good.

I picked the charcuterie platter for myself, as I was selecting a second appetizer plate for my entree. A wooden board held two wedges of a nice coarse-textured pate campagne, several tasty thin slices of U.S.-based Laquercia prosciutto, a small cup of very rich duck rillette made from shredded confit, all served with thin-sliced French baguette toasts lightly greased with schmaltz (chicken liver fat). There was also some housemade salted cucumber pickles, sliced fresh Asian pear and a small heap of preserved Bing cherries, along with a swath of a spicy and very tasty housemade horseradish-spiked mustard. The rillette was so rich I put aside to bring home; it made a great sandwich filling the next day. I liked the platter but the toast was sub-par. I just didn't care for it, and would have preferred fresh bread. It wasn't browned, but it was a little too hard, cut too thick, and somehow didn't have much flavor. The schmaltz was unnecessary, especially with the over-the-top rillette.

Carlos chose the NY steak for his entree. This looked and tasted more like a chewy top sirloin than a NY strip, but it had a lovely char on the crust and was done to the medium-rare we prefer. The menu listed yellowfoot mushrooms, which resembled dark brown enoki-type fungi in a little heap. The celeriac and bleu cheese puree was a big hit with Carlos, who said he'd like to see chefs use more of these starchy vegetable purees. What he didn't like was the big heap of Kentucky Wonder-type green beans, which hadn't been cooked enough. 

The appetizer I picked for my entree was the Jerusalem artichoke (aka sunchokes) pierogi, the flatter Russian version of the Chinese potsticker. Dots of a brown butter crème fraiche were scattered around the plate. There were four decently-sized pierogi over a lovely parsnip puree, and wilted Swiss chard that had a tang from some balsamic. I swapped my chard for Carlos' beans. The beans were beautifully fresh, but only a few of them had cooked all the way through, the rest being overly al dente. I mentioned to the waitress that they should let the kitchen know these really had not been cooked long enough, and she apologized. 

The filling of the pierogi was delicious. Again, this was a nice dish, nothing remarkable but good.

Inez picked the sweet potato spaetzle entree, which unfortunately: (a) wasn't very sweet, the sweet potato tasting more starchy than anything else; (b), wasn't spaetzle, instead being breadcrumb-crusted tater tots; and (c) was actually smaller than my pierogi appetizer. We've been to Five seven times since late 2009, and this was by far the poorest entree we've encountered. If it had been a side to anything else, it would have been lovely. But by itself, with the minimal accompaniments of two leaves of deep-fried crispy kale, a few maitake and some pearl onions, it was like the beet salad – a combination not actually well thought-out. The execution was good, the ingredients were fine, but the conception of this dish was pedestrian, and the quantity frankly inadequate for an entree.

Because Five's menu is intended to be multi-course, we almost always have dessert here. Carlos was attracted to the quince-pineapple upside-down cake with toasted meringue and vanilla gelato, so we shared that while Inez attacked a double scoop of vanilla gelato to which she added the preserved cherries from my charcuterie platter. 

The upside-down cake was light and moist, the quince topping a little heavy on the brown sugar and butter. Quince is very tart but this was a bit too much caramelizing. However, the balance overall worked out well, showing the proper execution and conception that was lacking in the beets and spaetzle dishes. 

The meringue was sweet, but just a very thin layer over the plate, toasted dark for color. This was a brilliant idea as everything else was monochromatic. Small piles of finely diced, unsweetened fresh pineapple gave the dish a gentle lift of acidity, and the vanilla gelato was perfect – not very sweet nor super-rich. It gave the dish creaminess without weighing it down, and its modest sugar level offset the sweetened quince topping. Carlos gave this dessert our highest praise, saying, "This ended up perfectly balanced."

He had a cappuccino, I had decaf coffee. For some reason, Five's decaf is much better than their regular coffee, and whoever makes the cappuccinos at dinner time uses too much grounds. I find lunch here a little too minimal to recommend, but the lunchtime cappuccino was much better than it has been in the evenings.

The service at Five remains excellent, and it's one of the main draws for us. This is especially true as we had some serious issues with Gather/Berkeley, with a first visit going well but a second falling down noticeably with both food and waitstaff issues. But although this dinner was good, that spaetzle was a little too sparse for the price – especially considering it was twice the cost of the pierogi!

Some of the passion and confidence seems to have slipped away this time. However, as with my lunch at French Garden/Sebastopol the day before, it might be that often it's the second-line cooks on duty during the last week of December and first week of January. This is always the "dead time" for restaurants, so a lot of front-line kitchen staff will take time off to recharge. It's hard to tell. 

Most of the food and all of the service were good enough that Five deserves another chance to show us what they can do. We'll schedule another dinner here during 2013 to report back.

Three people, dinner: two starters, one side, one charcuterie plate, two entrees, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $140. 

FIVE @Shattuck Hotel in Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
Review date: May 2012
(previous reviews appended below)

Ah, Mother's Day! It's almost as bad for brunch as Valentine's Day is for dinner. So nowadays we skip the big crowds and go out for dinner instead. It's much less crowded, and far more pleasant. We decided to go back to Five, as it's been a while. Our last visit was December 2011.

We were especially happy with our decision after the waiter told us they had served some 300 people for brunch that day, Five is large, but we've never been there when it's been more than half-full. It must have been a madhouse!

For dinner, however, Five was back to its usual one-third-full self. Five has a prix fixe every night, a three-course for $29. Tonight's menu was a salad, prime rib and butterscotch pudding. As long as I was willing to order a different dessert and switch with Carlos – I'm the one who loves butterscotch, whereas Carlos prefers chocolate – he could select the prix fixe.

Five's dishes are modest in size. The starters are designed specifically for multi-course sharing. Much of the menu has finally changed, which we were glad to see as it's never been a very large menu overall. We chose two starters to share: the flatbread with duck sausage, and the grilled prawns with chickpeas. 

The flatbread is a soft, puffy, housemade oval, brushed with EVOO and piled generously with a housemade duck sausage, crispy fried shallots and garlic, and wild arugula. Served warm, this was spectacular. All three of us loved this. Everything was in proportion, and the flavors were wonderful. The duck sausage was a masterpiece of charcuterie. Inez eats so little nowadays that she will only take bite of an appetizer, but she happily ate her full share of this dish.

The prawns were also remarkable. Sweet and fresh, the five big prawns were marinated with "Moroccan spices" and served with a wonderful side of housemade hummus that was fragrant with cinnamon – yes, real cinnamon, not cassia – Meyer lemon juice, and a touch of honey. A garnish of super-crispy spiced chickpeas was more addictive than potato chips. Set off with sprigs of fresh coriander, it was both attractive and delicious. Inez liked this so much, she had not one but two of the shrimps, as well as half the hummus and chickpeas.

Carlos' salad seemed ordinary after these two starters, but it was nicely done: mixed lettuces with candied pecans, two generous slices of Pt. Reyes bleu cheese and an excellent champagne vinaigrette. The greens were fresh and the dressing mild.

The prime rib was a modest cut. Carlos' favorite is Townhouse's/Emeryville prime rib, but this was medium-rare with an excellent au jus. A flavorful braised kale with bacon accompanied the mashed potatoes and baby carrots. 

Inez got the CA halibut, a moist filet sear-roasted and topped with roasted red bell pepper shreds seasoned agrodolce (Italian sweet and sour). It was served over a small heap of sauteed pea tendrils, with bright purple cauliflower florets decorating the outside edge. Decorative swirls of a beurre blanc seasoned with vadouvan, a French masala curry spice mix, were mild and delicious with everything. Despite her having helped us with the two starters, she cleaned her plate. The portions at Five are precisely to her taste, and it's nice not to have to lug home leftovers for her yet again.

I chose the lamb tenderloin. This was a sharp contrast to the disappointing lamb at La Toque/Napa last week (which had been even more disappointing because that same lamb dish had been the highlight of our first visit to La Toque back in November 2011). Five's lamb was the same size serving, same beautiful medium-rare roasting, but it was perfectly seasoned with a gremolata crust on top. 

I don't always care for gremolata (see Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremolata), but Five did a masterful version. Instead of garlic, they used a small amount of shallots. With the toasted bread crumbs (Five makes all their own breads), lemon zest, and parsley, this herbal spread was flavorful yet let the mild lamb predominate.

My plate, like Inez's, was also colorful, with the brightest purple Peruvian potatoes I've seen in a long time. They were lightly seasoned with rosemary and roasted, served with a generous amount of really sweet, small early peas that were amazing. I would have liked the halved cipollini onions to have been more fully cooked, however, although they were mild in flavor. A lamb tongue confit was sliced and served as a side garnish. On top, a heap of frisee leaves tossed with a whole-grain mustard vinaigrette complemented one another surprisingly well, without overwhelming the other ingredients. I loved this dish; it was like an old-fashioned taste of spring.

Like Artisan Bistro/Lafayette, another favorite of ours, Five eschews quantity (oversized desserts big enough for two and sometimes three or four) for quality. Servings are sized for one person, and are imaginative, beautiful and delicious

Inez chose to have a single scoop of vanilla ice cream, which like most places nowadays, is housemade. I picked – well, Carlos actually picked – the chocolate cheesecake. When it came, I handed it to him and he gave me his prix fixe dessert, the butterscotch pudding with peanut brittle and whipped cream on top.

Quite a few restaurants make this "comfort food" dessert, although I don't think anyone makes it as well as the long-gone-but-not-forgotten MoNo did (Shuna Lydon was the brilliant consulting pastry chef). Five did a better version than most, however, and I loved the size of it. It's a rich dessert, so I was happy to receive a small-sized cup. The peanut brittle was a real taste of childhood – I loved this candy when I was growing up, although I haven't had any for at least five decades. Small chopped slivers of dark chocolate were superfluous but nice. A spoonful of heavy whipped cream topped a fun dessert that was perfect with Five's good strong decaf. 

The chocolate cheesecake came with tart-sweet blackberries and small dabs of semi-solid sea salt caramel. The cheesecake was not very tall, and had been made with fresh cream cheese for a milder flavor.  The size was perfect and Carlos had his usual regular coffee – I really envy him the ability to drink caffeinated beverages before bedtime!

We have always enjoyed good meals at Five, but this was the best one yet. From start to finish, everything was full of flavor and satisfying. If it weren't for the hideous parking situation around this restaurant – it's in the most crowded and difficult section of downtown Berkeley for parking – we would come here more often. 

Let the crowds go to Gather, just down the street. We'd rather enjoy Five's better food, superior service, run by a chef who takes tremendous pride in the quality and execution of his vision. Chef Banks White seems to finally be drawing people in, and deservedly so. This is a restaurant of real San Francisco quality, from kitchen to waitstaff, and deserves to be treasured. We're lucky to have a restaurant like Five in Alameda County: stylish, fresh, and interesting. 

Three people, dinner: one 3-course prix fixe, two starters, two entrees, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $167.

Five @Hotel Shattuck, Berkeley, CA – update, dinner
Review date: December 2011
(previous reviews appended below)

We haven't eaten at Five since July 2011, when we took three of our friends to dinner here. We've always enjoyed Five, despite the limited menu and difficult parking. The dining room is handsome and truly spacious, the service ranges from good to very good, and we've had good luck with their food. 

Our impetus for coming was that two friends had come on different occasions, and hadn't been impressed by Five. So we were concerned that perhaps one of our favorites was slipping. We do think their food is better at dinner than lunch, and weekday breakfast isn't even worth considering here, although we haven't tried their Sunday brunch menu yet.

We started with the popcorn shrimp and orzo mac'n'cheese. The shrimp come with both housemade cocktail sauce and a terrific sriracha aioli that had a great spicy kick. The shrimp are small, and the batter tends to shatter off a bit too much. But they're juicy and sweet, and we mopped up the sauces to the last drop.

The orzo mac'n'cheese was almost too rich this time, with a generous amount of creamy Bechamel and the lightly smoked gouda they've been using for the past year in this dish. There was just a tiny dollop of the wonderful tomato jam, sadly. I wished there had been more as it's really amazing with the cheese sauce.

Carlos had the soup, which was parsley root and parsnip topped with chanterelles and truffle oil. Inez and I loved the butter-sauteed mushrooms, but Carlos didn't care for them. The soup was a substantially-sized serving of a rich bisque. It's really better shared or else Five should offer it in a cup size.

I started with the beet salad, which was an amazing combination of tiny heirloom beets, chopped Treviso radicchio, creamy mild clumps of goat cheese, and an almond pesto. Instead of the usual dressing, there was a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream mixed with a beet au jus to sweeten it. Although the list of ingredients doesn't sound that unusual, it was a beautifully balanced, satisfying salad, with the unexpected garnishes of several slices of salted burdock chips – like colorful little potato chips – and a remarkable paper-thin orange crisp. 

Both Carlos and Inez loved the tastes I gave them of this crisp. Carlos and I discussed how this had been made. It's actually simple, and surprising that more chefs haven't thought of doing this. The crisp was a Valencia orange, sliced on a mandoline, then lightly cooked and glazed with a crystal-clear sugar syrup. The peel and pith gave a bitter edge to offset the thin sugar glaze, making a garnish that was not only decorative but truly delicious, both by itself and with bites of the salad.

For our entrees, I picked the halibut, which came with a bouillabaise sauce, clams, mussels, slices of fingerling potatoes, and a baguette toast. Carlos and Inez both chose the monkfish, wrapped in prosciutto, and served over Puy (green) lentils stewed (only to an al dente stage) with carrots, potatoes, and quartered Cippolini onions.

The monkfish was nicely done, and the prosciutto had flavor without tasting of just salt, as so often cheap prosciutto does. The lentils were okay, but we were all full from our various starters, so we left most of them since none of us are in love with al dente beans.

The halibut wasn't the freshest – not spoiled nor did it smell, but the texture was not as tender as it should have been. But the bouillabaise sauce, reduced down from a broth, was simply spectacular. Carlos and I decided to exchange entrees, and he mopped up every drop of that sauce, using first the fish and then the bread. 

It's a shame that Five doesn't offer a bouillabaise. But unless the clientele demands it regularly, it's a dish that's difficult to offer only occasionally – like ceviche, it doesn't keep and can quickly turn to mush if held it too long. Chef Banks White showed here that he's certainly capable of doing a great version, if he's so inclined. This was particularly notable as there were no shrimp in the dish or the broth. All too often, shrimp are used as the mainstay in giving flavor to a mixed seafood dish, and it's more difficult to achieve a great flavored broth without them.

We skipped dessert as we were too full and settled for cappuccinos. For some reason, Five's decaf espresso is much smoother and more pleasing than their regular espresso blend, so unless you're looking for a real kick, I'd suggest sticking to the decaf espresso and espresso drinks. 

Service was excellent, from the reception desk to the busboys to the waiter, Dwight, who did an outstanding job with timing and follow-up. We've had Dwight before, and he's one of the better waiters in Berkeley.
 
We have to say that Five has its limitations. The small menu can be a real problem – Five offers a nice three- or four-course pre fixe every night, but they don't post it to the Web so you don't know if you'll be interested until you get seated and can read the details.

Chef White frankly does a better job with meat than with fish. Five just doesn't get enough of a crowd that you can trust the seafood turnover, and honestly, we think their meat dishes are just more interesting.

Speaking of crowds, there was a pretty good crowd for a Wednesday evening, probably due to the holidays. The dining room was about two-thirds full and thankfully, there was no live music that night. In fact that's one of the things we like most about Five – there's no music at all, recorded or otherwise.

We still enjoy Five more than the other Berkeley restaurants. In six visits they have been remarkably consistent, especially compared to their local competition. La Note's food is marvelous, but the noise and cramped dining room are over-the-top unpleasant. Venus can be excellent, but they're also small and noisy, making it hard to take any friends there. Meritage@Claremont Hotel was superb the first time but disappointing the second. Cafe Rouge's service, like Lalime's, displays a disconcerting Jekyll-and-Hyde character. 

Riva Cucina has wonderful food but unprofessional service and chairs that are borderline sadism. Zut! has inconsistent food – sometimes amazing, often ordinary, with service that falls just a little too short of that lovely dining room. Gather's even more erratic than Zut!, and the least professional service of any high-end Berkeley restaurant we've visited. Venezia was decidedly uneven this last time, while Rivoli/Corso are not restaurants we ever want to return to. 

Origen, one of the newest Berkeley restaurants to open, will be reviewed next week. We'll also be going to Skates (where new chef Greg Lutes has arrived from SF's Waterfront restaurant) and Bay Grille, both in Berkeley, in January 2012. We'll also try getting into Chez Panisse at some point during the first quarter of 2012, a restaurant we haven't visited in almost three decades. It will be interesting to compare these to Five, and see how it all comes out.

Three people: Four starters, three entrees, three beverages, with tip was $165.

Five in Berkeley, CA – update dinner
Review date: July 2011
(previous reviews appended below)

We needed to pick a good restaurant for five people for dinner in Berkeley, as a “halfway for everybody” meeting spot. Our choices were Riva Cucina or Five, and I decided Five would be a better place to sit and talk. It is much more comfortable and stylish in décor, has a handsome bar area where we could wait if our friends were delayed, and both food and service is always a bit more polished than Riva Cucina.

Five makes updated comfort food. After three years of eating around the Bay Area, we consider Chef Banks White to be one of the best around, and in Alameda County where we live, he is the best. In the larger East Bay area, only Artisan/Lafayette's John Marquez is just a bit better. 

Because of their consistency in quality, creativity, and execution throughout all three courses, along with good service and pleasant décor, these are the two restaurants we would wholeheartedly recommend for anyone looking for a place to have that 'special' dinner.

The five of us shared three starters – the orzo 'mac & cheese', the fried green tomatoes, and the Dungeness crab fritters. 

The orzo 'mac & cheese' is a dish we've had several times. This was a bit milder than previous versions, using smoked gouda, garnished with roasted oyster mushrooms and a dollop of housemade tomato jam. Sprinkled with lightly toasted bread crumbs, this dish always stays on the menu, and deservedly so.

The crab fritters are pure Dungeness crab, no extender breadcrumbs or cracker meal. A heaping tablespoonful of crab is formed into a ball, dipped in a flour batter, and deep-fried a golden, greaseless brown. It comes with a small heap of arugula and frisee lettuces, and the lemon caper ravigote, which is what tartar sauce aspires to be when it finally grows up, was so good we were scraping the plate to get the last of it. 

The fried green tomatoes were a big hit with Carlos and Laura, who both love them. Served with halved 'Sweet 100s' cherry tomatoes and a basil buttermilk dressing over mixed greens, the plate was cleaned off so fast Carlos almost missed getting some!

We also ordered a side of buttermilk biscuits, which was a mistake. We should have ordered two of them, because with the 2-oz ramekin of cheddar-pimento-housemade mayonnaise spread, they were hugely popular with everyone.

Carlos also picked an extra starter, the soup of the day, which was a three-pepper cream bisque. The waiter asked if he wanted to share the soup, which he didn't. This was a nice touch that was appreciated, as several recent restaurants have automatically assumed, to our annoyance, that we are sharing both appetizers and soup – which we don't want to do. The soup had a strong bell pepper flavor, softened by the cream. It was very good, and a generous serving.

Steve selected the 2-course “theatre menu”, which was a special BBQ menu: brisket, a chicken quarter (leg and thigh), potato salad, coleslaw, and grilled corn on the cob. The brisket, the fattier and more succulent point cut, was moist and tender, with a delicate smoky flavor. The chicken was judged very good by the others (I opted to try the brisket instead), both lightly sauced with a really wonderful, light, slightly hot BBQ sauce. The corn on the cob was unusual – grilled, then given a light coat of tomato-based sauce with crumbled farmers cheese – and also excellent.

Normally this theatre menu is a 3-course, but to go along with the generously portioned BBQ plate, Five threw in a pint of their house beer instead. 

Carlos and Laura both got the 'steak and potatoes', a thin but tasty skirt steak, housemade 'tater tots', broccolini, and a smoked tomato butter that melted beautifully into a rich brown au jus reduction.

Ali picked the roasted pork loin, with caramelized cippolini onions, americano prosciutto, lambs' lettuce, and a generous amount of bacon jus. She said it was excellent, full of flavor.

I had the short-rib, a nice thick boneless that was fork-tender. It sat atop a marscapone polenta that was one of the better polentas I've had, with a good cheese flavor yet a slightly lighter than usual texture. Angle-cut white carrots and braised mustard greens were the accompaniments, along with a wonderful natural jus reduction.

All of us saved room for dessert. Steve received the sole disappointment of the night, a peach melba that was very classic, but meringue is just not a popular offering these days. Carlos, Ali and Laura opted for the dark chocolate torte, layered with a milk chocolate ganache and mint chip ice cream. Five subbed vanilla ice cream for Carlos, who doesn't care for mint except in rare situations.

I chose the warm brown butter walnut cake, which was served with kirsch-flavored whipped cream and halved pressed Bing cherries. It was a wonderful dessert, something we've come to depend upon at Five.

Chef White has that deft hand with sauces that we look for when judging a restaurant as a favorite. Why? Because a great sauce brings everyday ingredients to an exciting new level, making the ordinary, extraordinary. After the disappointing return to Riva Cucina the night before, it was a relief to see that Five has kept its quality and execution at a high level.

There is no unpleasantly aggressive herbaceousness as Chevalier/Lafayette and Riva Cucina/Berkeley have shown us in the last few weeks. There is no excess of salt or excessively rich butterfat. In fact, all the flavors meld so well it's almost impossible to identify what's been used to create the sauce – it simply tastes yummy with everything on the plate, which is the only worthwhile goal.

We were a bit taken aback to discover that Five had started live music during main dining hours. Fortunately our friends enjoyed it, but Carlos and I were a lot happier when the trio finished up around 9 p.m. and the room was blissfully quiet as we had expected.

The downside, of course, is that people are coming to Five for the bar, but there's still very few diners overall. In a good-sized dining room, there were only four tables of diners on a Thursday evening. We'd like to see this restaurant discovered and appreciated more, because they certainly deserve it.

Ali had a glass of the Landmark Sonoma chardonnay, Laura had a beer. For five people, one opting for a 2-course pre-fixe, we tried four starters, one side, four entrees, four desserts, three beverages. 

Five charges the 18% gratuity for parties over four. I added another $20 to the tip, which brought the bill to a well-worth-it total of $312.00.

Five in Berkeley, update dinner, September 2010
(previous reviews appended below)
 
Four words: Pork and beans bruschetta.
 
We go to Five almost as often as we go to Montclair Bistro, for pretty much the same reasons. The food is good, the decor is pleasing and spacious, the service excellent. This time we took our friends Mel and Christie and reliable as ever, Five did not let us down.
 
Five has a different executive chef, Banks White, than when they first opened. Scott Howard is now in a consulting role only, and White really seems to be hitting his stride. You can read how a ‘friendly’ competition between the two chefs was a clear win for White in the SF Examiner article: http://www.examiner.com/sf-in-san-francisco/chef-smackdown-at-five-berkeley-slideshow. 

I chose to start with those crab fritters, sharing them with everyone. There are five batter-fried balls, full of crab in a greaseless light shell. Five's accompaniment was a lovely caper mayonnaise, with just the right touch of finely chopped shallots. I love Five’s dressings, which are housemade and superbly balanced.
 
Carlos ordered the odd-sounding bruschetta. It was two hefty slices of grilled baguette topped with what was clearly housemade pork and beans. Rich with a smoky taste, mildly spicy, the beans and bread were terrific together - a creative and ingenious twist that all of us enjoyed (and I don't happen to like pork 'n' beans very much).
 
Mel ordered the heirloom tomato salad, an excellent choice since we're getting to the end of tomato season. Three appetizers was more than enough for four people to share generously. 
 
Carlos ordered the veal chop, which looked like a slightly thicker chop than I received on our previous visit. The sides of potato gratin and wilted chard were perfect. Christie and I ordered the hanger steak, which came with housemade ‘tater tots’. Both were excellent, even though my hanger steak was a little more to the medium than medium-rare. Despite that, it was tender and had that wonderful char-broiled crust that only really high heat can produce. Mel had the pork chop, which was excellent if not quite to Wente's amazing standard (Mel and Christie were our guests at Wente in May 2010).

The au jus on all the meat, unlike the ones at Corso just three days prior, were perfect reductions and not overly salty.
 
Desserts were amazing. Pastry chef Robert Hac is surpassed only by Aziza’s Melissa Chou. Mel's chocolate souffle cake was a slice of rich ganache on a beautifully spare plate decorated with slashes of white and dark chocolate, with a small scoop of hazelnut ice cream on the side. I had the sheep's milk panna cotta, which was elevated by amazing accompaniments of tiny scoops of intense watermelon sorbet and a champagne cayenne granite that may have forever changed my mind about disliking hot spices in my desserts. It was a stunning symphony of taste and texture that was truly masterful.
 
Christie chose the adult version of milk and cookies - a trio of warm, chocolate walnut snickerdoodle cookies, served with a glass of cinnamon-walnut milk. So often when chefs use cinnamon, they use not only a poor quality but too much of it. This was not only wonderful by itself, it was even better when the cookies were dunked in. 
 
As always, Five does very good tea and coffee. Dinner for the four us consisted of three starters, four entrees, three desserts, five beverages, with tip was a reasonable $191.

Five in Berkeley (update, dinner, July 2010)
(previous reviews appended below)

We needed a vegetarian/flexitarian restaurant for our good friends John and Keiko, but couldn’t get into Gather as a last-minute choice on Sunday evening when we returned from Santa Cruz/Monterey. So we ended up at Five, which if you want not only good food but a comfortable, laid-back décor and excellent service, is one of the very few Berkeley restaurants that is capable of supplying all three. 

They had a nice pre-fixe, and Keiko chose that as a 3-course special for $28. She received a lovely smoked duck breast salad with fresh melon garnish, then a piece of pork tenderloin sliced over a black-eyed pea succotash with chow-chow garnish, and ending with a berry shortcake a la mode.

We also ordered the tombo tuna tostada for everyone to share – seven one-bite mini-tostadas of seared tombo with tomato ceviche and a drizzle of lime crème fraiche, atop dabs of avocado and wasabi cream, with the merest sprinkle of finely ground pepitas (pumpkin seeds). As most of you know, I don’t often eat sashimi any longer, having OD’ed on it in my youth, but this was really delicious.

John chose the ravioli in cream sauce, which he said was very good. We also shared a side of the house biscuits which come fresh out of the oven, with a cheddar-pimento spread. Carlos picked the petrale sole – although as they had no crab to add to the mashed potatoes as listed on the menu, he asked them to sub the fried onion rings that normally come with the steak. They were happy to do this substitution. The sole was prepared a little differently than the first time he had this dish. Previously the dish had two flat fillets, with the mashed potatoes in between. This time, they rolled the fillets into a turban. This can be tricky to time, but they did it perfectly.

I picked the veal chop, which came with a good potato gratin and some al dente Italian flat beans. The chop was a bit on the thin side, only 1” thick, but it was nicely sauteed and satisfying.

Carlos and I ended with cappuccinos, which they do well here although not quite to the level of I-Squared or Pican. The four of us sat after finishing dinner and talked for at least two more hours – they weren’t crowded, and the waiter kindly checked in a couple more times to see if we wanted anything else, such as more iced tea or coffee.

Five is one of our favorite restaurants. The décor is stylish, the service is excellent, and the food is always good. They never have a huge menu, so always check the website to be sure it’s something interesting. It’s a real shame that more people haven’t discovered them. It’s a wonderful dinner restaurant, and the level of service is up there with the best in Alameda County. One starter, one pre fixe, three entrees, three beverages, with tip for four people was a modest $154.

Five in Berkeley (lunch)
Review date:  May 2010   (previous review appended below)

Some months ago we had a lovely dinner at Five, located in the renovated Hotel Shattuck in the heart of Berkeley's business district. While on our way to a trip to the Wine Country, we stopped in to try lunch on a Sunday.

I was surprised they don't offer weekend brunch, but they do offer pancakes or eggs-and-breakfast meat on the weekend menu. The rest of the carefully limited menu is sandwiches or smaller-sized entree plates.

Carlos chose the parmesan potato gnocchi in a tomato-based short ribs gravy, with a side of their fried onion rings. I selected a cup of the white bean and tomato soup and the duck confit with frisee salad.

The onion rings came with a house-made remoulade dipping sauce, which Carlos absolutely loved, saying it was the best dipping sauce he'd ever had. A remoulade is reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing without the pickles, and when based on a true house/home-made mayonnaise, is a wonderful sauce that deserves to have returned into fashion. My bean soup was amazingly light, definitely suitable for vegans with a mixed vegetable stock base. The chef used just enough beans to lightly thicken it, then drizzled a goodly swirl of pistou into it, which added a wonderful complexity to the taste. Even though it was a warm day, I almost wished I'd ordered the bowl size instead of the cup.

Carlos' gnocchi were a touch larger than usual, but still light in texture. They were also filling, as gnocchi tends to be. The gravy was a classic tomato gravy with tender pieces of chopped boneless short rib meat, and generous shavings of Parmesan. The duck confit was tender with a crispy skin, and the frisee/arugula salad was dressed with a dried blueberry vinaigrette that was delightful, especially when mopped up with the very fresh baguette slices.

Carlos wanted to split a dessert, so we tried the Sticky Toffee Pudding with bananas, pecans and ice cream. This is never my favorite dessert, so although Five's rendition wasn't bad, it was still too sweet and needed lots of their good coffee to wash it down. Next time we'll try something else to share - like many restaurants, the serving size for desserts tends to be quite large. We'd like to see more places start offering the 'dessert bites' idea that Montrio in Monterey uses.

Five wasn't very crowded and street parking was pretty easy, since the school and post office were closed. With their comfort food menu, I hope more people discover that Five offers excellent food as well as an extremely attractive dining room. It offers friendly, professional service - a nice change from the snotty hostess at Lake Chalet last week - and I appreciate the kitchen restricting the menu to relatively few things that are well executed and of the highest quality, instead of trying to offer everything to everybody on every day.

Five stays on our list of "A" restaurants. We just wish the parking weren't so godawful most of the time, LOL. Two starters, two beverages, two entrees, one dessert, with tip came to a moderate $67.

Five Restaurant @Hotel Shattuck
2086 Allston Way, Berkeley
http://www.five-berkeley.com/
Review date:  October 2009

This place has gotten very good reviews, and now that Downtown has closed, can reign supreme as one of the best bistros on a very crowded street. They are close to the Berkeley Theatre, so the waiter asked if we were attending a performance before taking our orders – a nice touch that I’m sure theatregoers (which we weren’t) would appreciate.

It’s interesting how similar their menu is to Montclair Bistro, yet how different the cooking is. It’s equally good – just different, more California-bistro than rooted-in-classic-French. Less rich, not as skilled with sauces, yet well-composed and nicely balanced in its flavors.

We started off by sharing three starters. Inez is back, so we all shared the pork paté with pistachios, the orzo ‘mac & cheese’ with chanterelles and tomato jam, and the roasted beets with blue cheese and candied pecans over frisee/arugula.

To start with, though, the bread basket came with thin slices of baguette, and three yummy, tender herb biscuits. Instead of bread, they bring a white Cheddar/mayonnaise spread with chopped roasted red pepper, which is a delicious change.

The paté was a nice coarse country style, which I like more than Carlos does. The accompaniments were inspired – a fresh apricot preserve, pomegranate seeds, sliced Bartlett pear, and a wonderful celeriac slaw with poppy seeds. 

The orzo was a huge hit, with a nice mix of cheeses melted in. The chanterelles were fabulous, with a rich smoky flavor that really went well with the dish. The tomato jam wasn’t as candy-sweet as many of the versions I’ve had of it, which was all to the good in blending well in this dish.

I was so-so on the beet salad. The greens were scant and tired, the Pt. Reyes blue cheese was necessary to offset the sharpness of the sherry vinegar, and they had pickled the beets, which is something I dislike. Fresh beets, IMHO, should be left alone: if I want pickled beets, I can open up a jar of Del Monte’s finest from my local supermarket!

Carlos also tried their mushroom soup, but asked that the crème fraiche be withheld. This made the soup a bit salty and almost too intense; they use a lot of porcini in their version.

Both Carlos and Inez opted for the petrale sole, which came with Dungeness crab mashed potatoes, crispy baby artichoke quarters and a beurre rose (the classic beurre blanc butter sauce, but using a red wine instead of a white). There were two slices of nicely browned sole sandwiching a large creamy, cheesy clump of mashed potatoes with crab. Carlos, who normally doesn’t order fish when going out, really enjoyed this dish. It’s nice to see petrale sole coming back onto menus, and as I think it’s really our premier local fish, let’s hope its popularity (and the supply) continues.

I had the duck confit, which came with fried spaetzle over a kabocha squash puree with a few scattered roasted Brussel sprout leaves. The duck was tender, moist, with one side of it well-crisped by sautéing. It was one of the better duck dishes I’ve had, with all the elements complementing one another.

We shared the banana bread pudding, with a rum caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was luscious, and unlike many another version, not heavy or leaden. The ripe bananas cut the sweetness of the caramel sauce, too. Altogether, a definite winner!

Carlos was frustrated that the espresso machine was broken – this is, what, the third time this has happened to him in the last year? So we compared regular coffee (his) with decaf (mine). The cup size is generous and both came piping hot. We decided the decaf blend is actually smoother and richer than the regular coffee.

Five serves lunch as well as breakfast. The dining room is noisy and energetic, but the tables are well-spaced and it’s a very attractive space. 

This will go on our list of keepers. It says something about the East Bay that finally, there are enough good restaurants around that even though we go out once a week, we’re having trouble making it back to some of our other favorites on a regular basis. Let’s hope the boom on this side of the Bridge continues! 

Dinner for three with tip: four starters, three entrees, one dessert, three beverages, came to $149.